evening, the situation in the middle east reaching a tipping point. Will there be all-out war between the israelis and hamas in gaza? Or will frantic, behind the scenes negotiations, talks in neighboring egypt, help bring an 11th hour truce? On the ground, the casuas are mounting tonight. In gaza, women, children among the dead as the israelis were trying to target the home of a key militant. Many others were hit by that missile. Meanwhile, in israel, as families rush to shelters, holes where the hamas rockets have landed. And these images tonight. Israel blocking some of those incoming rockets aimed for its most populated cities, knocked down from the sky. Part of the so-called iron dome. President obama tonight vowing support, saying israel has a right to defend itself, while at the same time, saying a ramp up in military activity in gaza ground war, would be bad for both sides. We have a team in the region covering the middle east on the brink tonight. Abc's christiane amanpour and m matt gutman in israel. We begin tonight with alex marquardt in gaza city. Alex? Reporter: Good evening, david. This was the deadliest day in gaza since this escalation began. In one incident, 11 people were killed, almost all of them from a single family. This as palestinian militants continue firing rockets into israel, the military says almost 1,000 of them the thick smoke of the israeli air strike in one of the most densely populated places on earth. This is the house that was hit. It has now completely collapsed, and it really is chaos around here. Two bulldozers, emergency crews, and really anybody around, digging through the rubble, trying to find anybody who survived. The israeli military was targeting ahtarget ing a hamas rocket maker and hit a house that wasn't his. Those dead included four children and five women. Tempers are now flaring. More than 70 palestinians have been killed in the past five days. The wounded number almost 700. Earlier in the day, israel struck two buildings with hamas and international media offices. They said they knew journalists were there, but that hamas was using the building for operational communications. Six journalists were wounded. This as hamas and other militant groups kept up the onslaught of rockets flying into israel, many of them launched from those populated areas. Gazas were spoke with today say they are skeptical of the chances of any real cease-fire. They told us they've simply seen too many agreed to and then broken.

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